


Ocean

by Kaneko



Category: Generation Kill
Genre: M/M, Podfic Available, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-09-14
Updated: 2009-09-14
Packaged: 2017-10-02 16:22:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaneko/pseuds/Kaneko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At some point during the paddle party, Rudy announces that they should all go down to the beach and watch the sun rise over the ocean. It's a hundred percent the gayest thing he's ever said.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ocean

**Author's Note:**

> A late ficlet written for godofwine, who wanted Brad/Nate and the ocean.
> 
> Also available as a [podfic](http://audiofic.jinjurly.com/ocean) \- read by templemarker, artwork by templemaker, hosted by general_jinjur.

At some point during the paddle party, Rudy announces that they should all go down to the beach and watch the sun rise over the ocean. It's a hundred percent the gayest thing he's ever said.

"Even gayer than when you wanted to fuck Bruce Willis," Brad tells him.

"I didn't want to fuck him," Rudy says, laughing, as though the idea of wanting to fuck a guy whose picture you'd brought to a war zone is absurd. "I just think he has an admirable physique."

Brad grins and then gets distracted by Ray spilling beer all over himself and Mike's carpet like the three-year-old hick he is. Brad oversees the clean-up while Ray explains his conspiracy theory that corporations design all their products to make consumers buy other products. "So the company that made this beer bottle _deliberately_ used slippery glass," Ray says, scrubbing. "So when you inevitably drop it, you're forced to buy cleaning products made by the same multinational."

Brad leans against the mantelpiece and shuts his eyes. When he tunes back in, Ray is saying "... and eventually there'll be a single rich guy, like the king of capitalism".

At Brad's three o'clock someone says: "... likes it when I lick right up into her pussy."

Someone else is saying: "... fucking dickwads at-"

"... Captain America's personal stash."

And then Nate's voice, earnest. "... thinking I might go back to school."

Brad opens his eyes. Nate is talking to Pappy, but unexpectedly he's looking right at Brad. There's something in his expression that Brad can't identify, but he flicks his eyes away before Brad can analyse it.

"And that's what makes America great," Ray says from the floor.

A half hour later, the carpet is a little less stained and they're somehow all wandering the mile from Mike's house to the beach. They're drunk, but they walk in silence. No leaves crunch underfoot. They follow Mike along a ditch beside the road, tucked behind the treeline and invisible to cars that pass. Reconnaissance is a hard habit to break.

Brad finds himself next to Nate. They don't speak, but Nate glances up at him once or twice with the same indecipherable expression from Mike's living room. The trees move restlessly above them.

When they get there, the beach is empty and grey, swallowed up beyond the waves by an endless black ocean.

"I don't want to see Marines in the water," Nate says, sharply, as men start to stumble drunkenly towards the waves. And he's not an officer anymore, but no-one ventures further than ankle-deep.

Brad stands there with Nate and watches the guys. Ray, Walt, Trombley. Garza. Chaffin. Rudy. Christenson. Lovell. T. They kick water at each other and wrestle and talk trash, and Brad can't fathom giving this up.

The sky turns from black to grey. The ocean glints under it. Beside Brad, Nate's breath sounds shaky, and Brad has a sudden unexpected urge to touch him - just his arm or his shoulder. He clenches his fists behind his back.

They watch the sun rise - pink, then gold - over the ocean. Everything glows under it. By the time all the grey is gone, Nate's breath is even. When he turns to Brad, his smile is a little sad, but he seems composed. He touches Brad's arm, and opens his mouth to say something.

Brad feels the touch everywhere. His breath catches.

Nate closes his mouth over whatever he'd been about to say, and blinks a couple of times. He looks back over the water and starts to smile wider. "Hey," he says. "It's a brand new day."


End file.
